The ring in one evening

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The Ring on One Evening (also called The Ring on 1 Evening ) is a concert performance with excerpts from the four-part opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner and interludes by Loriot . Although these texts are humorous, the focus is on the serious explanation of the opera's content. The world premiere took place in Mannheim in 1992. The work has been staged several times since then and was also released on CD .

Content and style

Loriot's texts give a comprehensive overview of the plot of The Ring of the Nibelung . In doing so, he uses the humorous potential that Wagner's opera cycle offers him. Examples of this are the quarrel between the spouses Wotan and Fricka and the incest of Siegmund and Sieglinde. In several places he also adds information that is actually missing in the operas, but makes it easier to understand the work. According to Loriot Wotan, between the two operas Das Rheingold and Die Walküre must have been “in top form” in view of his nine daughters. Loriot explains Fafner's change from giant to dragon by saying that his immense capital changed him greatly.

Through references to the present and the use of contemporary vocabulary, Loriot makes references to the living environment of the opera audience. He describes Fafner and Fasolt as "building contractors with shoe size 58", Valhall as an "elaborate family home" and the trade-in by Freia for its construction as a "rule that is one of the exceptions even in today's tough business life ."

Loriot also breaks through the boundaries between the work and its creation several times. For example, he comes to the conclusion that you could have saved yourself three more lavish operas if the Rhine daughters had been a little more accommodating towards Alberich at the beginning of the Rheingold .

Performance and publication

Loriot expressed the idea for the ring one evening in the early 1980s in a conversation with the dramaturge and artistic director Klaus Schultz . Loriot had already worked with him several times, and later Schultz played Weber as the lodger in Loriot's feature film Oedipussi . After Schultz took over the management of the Nationaltheater Mannheim in 1992, he remembered Loriot's idea again. The theater planned to stage the entire Ring cycle. Since the theater was being renovated at the time, only a concert performance was possible. Schultz thought this was a good opportunity to realize Loriot's idea. After it had been decided which parts of the operas should be recorded, Loriot wrote his summary texts within six months.

Der Ring had its world premiere on October 28, 1992 with the ensemble of the National Theater in the Musensaal des Rosengarten in Mannheim. Jun Märkl took over the musical direction , Loriot read his text himself. Since then, Der Ring has been performed several times in one evening with different singers and in different places, initially with Loriot himself, later with other speakers, for example Jan Josef Liefers .

In 1993 Deutsche Grammophon released the double CD Loriot tells Richard Wagner's "Ring des Nibelungen" . The musical contributions come from studio recordings by the Berliner Philharmoniker under the direction of Herbert von Karajan , which were made between 1967 and 1970. The recording is 148 minutes long, of which about 34 minutes are Loriot's texts. In addition, Loriot published his ring texts in several anthologies.

Classification and evaluation

Loriot had been a passionate opera lover since his youth, which was also reflected in his artistic work from the 1980s. He staged two operas with Martha (1986) and the Freischütz (1988). In addition, from 1987 onwards he wrote short scenic explanations of various operas on various occasions. Der Ring builds on their style in one evening , but in contrast to this, gives a comprehensive overview of the content of the opera cycle. A similar project followed in 1999, when Loriot wrote interim texts for a concert performance of the operetta Candide by Leonard Bernstein with members of the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich . The responsible director was again Klaus Schultz, this time building work on the theater was a reason for the performance.

Several commentators note that the main focus of the Wagner lover Loriot at the Ring in one evening is on conveying Wagner's work and promoting it. As Germanist Hans Rudolf Vaget sums up, Loriot's respect for Wagner and his ring ensures that comic potential is wasted. So are Loriots texts "certainly amusing, occasionally funny, but an exuberant, liberating joy is there nowhere on." By contrast, had the ring parody of the English comedienne Anna Russell from 1953, with the Vaget Loriots ring one evening compares, funny and refreshing because of their disrespect.

Phonograms

  • Loriot tells Richard Wagner's "Ring des Nibelungen" using the example of the recording of Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. Deutsche Grammophon, Hamburg 1993 (2 CDs).

Text publications

literature

  • Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the comedy. Life, work and work of Vicco von Bülow . Scientific publishing house Trier, Trier 2011, ISBN 978-3-86821-298-3 .
  • Hans Vaget : What is there to laugh about? Loriot and Anna Russell explain the ring . In: Wagner spectrum . tape 3 , no. 1 , 2007, ISBN 978-3-8260-3714-6 , pp. 59-75 .

Individual evidence

  1. Claudia Hillebrandt: From swans and timetables. Loriot's comic opera . In: Anna Bers, Claudia Hillebrandt (Ed.): TEXT + KRITIK . No. 230 , 2021, ISBN 978-3-96707-487-1 , pp. 56–62 , here: 62, footnote 6 .
  2. Hans Vaget: What is there to laugh about? Loriot and Anna Russell explain the ring. 2007, p. 67.
  3. Hans Vaget: What is there to laugh about? Loriot and Anna Russell explain the ring. 2007, pp. 67-68.
  4. Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, pp. 331-332.
  5. Klaus Schultz: Wagner and Loriot? Wagner and Loriot! Quoted in Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, pp. 59–60 according to the booklet of the double CD Loriot tells Richard Wagner's "Ring des Nibelungen" using the example of the recording of Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. 1993, pp. 5, 7.
  6. Collected prose . Diogenes, Zurich 2006, ISBN 978-3-257-06481-0 , p. 723 .
  7. Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, p. 60. Wagner / Loriot: The ring on 1 evening. In: Website of the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden . Retrieved August 6, 2021 .
  8. Hans Vaget: What is there to laugh about? Loriot and Anna Russell explain the ring. 2007, p. 64.
  9. Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, p. 55.
  10. Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, pp. 322-331.
  11. Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, p. 332.
  12. Hans Vaget: What is there to laugh about? Loriot and Anna Russell explain the ring. 2007, p. 64. Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, p. 332. Claudia Hillebrandt: Of swans and timetables. Loriot's comic opera . In: Anna Bers, Claudia Hillebrandt (Ed.): TEXT + KRITIK . No. 230 , 2021, ISBN 978-3-96707-487-1 , pp. 56–62 , here: 62, footnote 6 .
  13. Hans Vaget: What is there to laugh about? Loriot and Anna Russell explain the ring. 2007, pp. 74-75.